


Chasing Cars

by nishiki



Series: Thistle and Weeds [9]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Brother Feels, Brotherly Affection, Brotherly Bonding, Brothers, Car Accidents, Driving, Feeling of guilt, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Head Injury, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Protective Diego Hargreeves, Protective Luther Hargreeves, big brother luther, car crash, guilty Klaus Hargreeves, injuries, supportive Ben Hargreeves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 04:18:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18684001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nishiki/pseuds/nishiki
Summary: When Diego trusts Klaus to pick him up from the dentist, everything soon goes haywire.





	Chasing Cars

**November 2019**

 

Diego trusted him. That was the very heart of his problems right now. Diego trusted him and wanted him to succeed in life. He trusted him enough to come to pick him up from his dentist appointment. He trusted him enough to have Klaus pick him up after some butcher had just taken ou all of Diego’s wisdom teeth and while Diego was high as a kite. Furthermore, he trusted Klaus to drive his car and not fuck it up even though Klaus still didn't get his official license.

They had been practicing a lot lately and Klaus soon had his test for the license. He hadn't felt nervous about it either until today when his brother entrusted him with his life as it was. He wondered if Diego even knew how much he was putting on his brother's shoulders with this simple request. Allison had dropped Diego off at the dentist on her way to the airport. She was visiting Claire and, if Patrick would allow it, she would actually bring Claire with her for a week so that the little girl would finally be able to meet the entire family.

Not that Klaus thought it was a particularly good idea to have Claire meet the entire crazy family. Certainly, Allison didn't want to scar her little girl forever when meeting the crazy uncles, right?

Rain was pretty much pummeling Diego’s crappy old car as Klaus was driving down the empty country road. Of course, his brother couldn't go to a dentist in the city like any normal person would. Then again … Diego was still visiting the dentist that had taken care of them while growing up. The one who always used to give them a giant ass teddy to hold onto while he was checking up on their teeth and doing whatever was necessary. He remembered Diego squeezing the life out of that bear when he was younger.

Of course, that Diego was deathly afraid of needles was no secret in their family and they could even trace his fear back to the exact moment it started. He glanced at his tattoo at that thought. Diego had never even looked at a needle without fainting after that awful day.

He imagined his brother sitting in that dentist chair right now with this fluffy teddy in his arms. The thought made him chuckle and momentarily forget about how anxious he was about driving all by himself. Luther had meant to go with him but then he hadn't made it back to the house in time as the phone call came. He had told Klaus though that he would do just fine if he had to go alone and Klaus was dead set on not disappointing his brothers.  

»You’re doing great, stop beating yourself up.« Ben smiled from the passenger’s seat where he was lounging comfortably with his feet propped up on the dashboard. Ben was lucky that Diego couldn't see that because good old D-Dog would certainly flip his shit. Usually, he would slap Klaus in the head whenever Klaus would do that same thing.

»You only say this because you are already dead.« Klaus huffed focussing on the road ahead. He could almost not see anything through the thick wall of water he was driving through. More often than not, he was blinded by the headlights of other cars driving back into the city while he was heading out into the outskirts of town through serpentine roads and lush trees along the roadside.

About fifteen minutes or so, he had passed the last building on the way out of town, a small roadside diner that had this 50’s thing going on with waitresses on rollerblades. Driving past it, Klaus had reminded the trips to the dentist as a child and how he had told his siblings that one day he would work there as a waiter on rollerblades too. Of course, his father had beaten those dreams out of him pretty quickly.

The tires of Diego’s old car slipped dangerously on the puddles on the ground every now and then but Klaus did his best to steer the vehicle as steadily as he could muster with his little experience. He couldn't help but feel very much like the captain of a ship steering his vessel through some ungodly storm.

»I say that because you are doing great, dearest brother.« Ben smiled encouragingly while the radio was spouting out the weather report. To nobody’s surprise, the weather man reported briefly on the current rainstorm which was supposed to be one of the worst their city had seen in the last ten years. Yay. »And you will pick up Diego and next week ace your license just fine.«

That was exactly the moment when Klaus felt the car slip on the wet ground again and this time he didn't manage to reign the car back in. It all happened too fast. He lost control all at once and there was really nothing he could do about it. Ben joined him in his scared scream and there was nothing his brother could do either.

There was a loud crash somewhere around him in the world as his head slammed forward and against the steering wheel and then everything went dark at once.

»Klaus!« There was a shrill scream vibrating in his head and making his brain swing like a tuning fork after someone had slammed it against a table. »Klaus! Come on, Dude, wake up!«

His head was killing him. There was a sharp ringing in his ear and his stomach had turned upside down. »Uh« He managed to groan out in pain. His head was pounding and pounding and pounding as if someone was beating it like a drum.

»Klaus!«

»Not so loud…« He moaned. There once was a time when he had been used to wake up in pain like this but now that he was sober, this didn't make much sense to him anymore. Had he been partying too hard? Had he relapsed? Fuck, if he had relapsed he would never forgive himself … Diego would never forgive him. He couldn't do that to his siblings again!

»Klaus, come on open your eyes!«

Benny was especially persistent today. He sounded alarmed. Had he overdosed again? Usually, Benny only sounded so alarmed when he overdosed or did something similarly stupid. He forced his eyes open slowly. First, he didn't even know what he was seeing. There were only darkness and the sound of someone doing a never-ending drumroll. Weird. Had he stumbled into the practice of some crappy garageband?

He sat back slowly as he realized that he was leaning forward against something hard and as he did, he noticed briefly that the world around him wasn't even dark at all. He had been leaning against the steering wheel of a car with his forehead. There was blood on the steering wheel and his face felt like it was on fire.

»Klaus!« He allowed his head to loll back against the seat and drop his hands into his lap uselessly. His left wrist hurt pretty badly. The windshield in front of him was majorly fucked up and it took him a while to realize that he had plummeted headfirst in one of the various trees on the side of the road. Ben was in the passenger’s seat beside him. Unharmed, of course. Sometimes being dead had its perks. »Are you okay?«

»Peachy.« Klaus groaned quietly before the reality of all of this finally sunk into his brain with a fury. »Fuck … Ben … What have I done? Diego is gonna kill me…«

The car was a wreck. He could see smoke rising up from underneath the hood. He had crashed straight into that tree without any chance of lessening the damage and around him, rain was still pouring to the ground. He couldn't see it but he assumed that the hood of the car had pretty much molded around the tree trunk or been squeezed together like an accordion.  

»How long’ve I been out?« Klaus slurred as he turned his head sluggishly to look at Ben. His brother looked quite pale and seemed to faze in and out of existence. He was _flickering_. Flickering like a bad hologram in a bad sci-fi movie. Funny. He was a ghost, after all. He felt like he was going to throw up and blamed the fact that he had just crashed his brother’s beloved car for that fact.

»Fifteen minutes!« Ben exclaimed a little too shrill for Klaus’ liking, which only prompted him to press his hands to his ears. His left wrist _really_ , really hurt. He hated it seeing his brother so upset. And why would he be anyway? Shouldn't Klaus be the one who was upset? To everyone else in this family, it shouldn't come as such a surprise that Klaus had, once again, majorly fucked up, right? They should expect nothing less from him nowadays. Diego should have never trusted him in the first place. Really, it was Diego's own fault that his car was now a complete wreck, right?

»Klaus, focus!« He hadn't noticed how his eyes were drooping until Ben made him jolt back into reality again. »Get out of the car and call someone.«

»How?« But Ben was already pointing down the street. Through the cracks in the windshield, it was hard to see but in the distance, just a couple of feet away, there was a payphone nailed to a wooden pole. Well, wasn’t he just a lucky son of a bitch? Not lucky enough though that there would be another car coming his way to help him. Of course not. Suddenly, the road was completely deserted. He might as well be the last person in this world.

»Okay.« He muttered. »Okay, okay, okay.«

Thankfully, he had actually buckled himself in or otherwise he might have flown straight through the windshield. Getting the seatbelt off was a bitch though and opening the door nearly impossible. The poor car was so destroyed from the impact that the cardoors were out of shape and jammed completely.

His only chance was to roll down the driver seat window enough to climb through it. On a good day, that wouldn't have been a problem, with him being as thin and flexible as he was. Now, however, his fingers were slipping on the wet metal outside as he held onto the roof of the car for support as he was pulling himself out of thar car headfirst. Going head first had probably been a mistake because as he slipped and subsequently fell to the ground, his poor abused head took the brunt of his fall again.

The ringing in his ears picked up once more. Vanya was tuning her violin somewhere right next to his ear. It was a loud annoying little screeching sound as if she was just barely learning how to use this instrument for the first time.

»Klaus!«

Oh. Ben. As he opened his eyes again, he could see his ghostly face stare down on him in horror. Had he passed out again? He wasn't lying next to the car though. In fact, the car was a few feet away from him now. Odd.

»Klaus, come on, man! You are almost there!«

»Oh, hey Benny…« He slurred as he tried to get a glimpse of the world around him but everything seemed warped and diffuse like he was looking through a fogged window in the kitchen. His head was pounding and he felt nauseous still. Oh right, he had crashed Diego's car. As he sat up slowly on the wet asphalt he was lying on, he could see flames coming out from underneath the hood. »Oh no … Oh, Diego is so gonna bite my head off. Maybe we should run away to Mexico, Benjamin?«

»Klaus, you need to call Luther.« Ben sounded as if he really had a hard time keeping his composure now. »Get up. The phone is right there. Get up and call Luther. You have enough spare change in your wallet. Come on.« Ben had always had the patience of a saint.

»Luther?« he groaned. »No, no … I can't call him … he’s gonna rip my head off too. Let's just … go.«

»You can't run away from this one!« Ben huffed annoyed. »Come on. Do it. You are injured, Klaus. You need help.«

»I should call an ambulance then.«

»You should call Luther. He will help you.« Deep down, he knew that Ben was right because Ben was always right. He was his Jiminy Cricket, the better part of his mind, his last surviving brain cell.

»Okay…« He mumbled as he braced his hands on the ground and tried to get up slowly. As he put his weight on his hands, though, his left wrist gave a painful crunch and he fell down again. For a second, Klaus thought that, judging by the odd shape his left wrist was in, he should be in immense pain. Even he could see that it was broken. He felt nothing except nausea though as he tried again to get to his feet.

He was like a newborn fawn, too unsteady to stand on his own legs as he finally succeeded. »Okay, okay … Okay.« He felt like passing out again as he slowly staggered towards the phone booth. He tried to ignore the burning car behind him as he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and started fidgeting with the coins inside - which was even harder now that he couldn't use his left hand. It seemed to take an eternity for him until he finally managed to get the coins he needed into the slot and dial the number of their home phone. If he wouldn't reach anyone there … then what? Call an ambulance? Die out here in peace and forever haunt this stretch of the road? At least then he wouldn't need to see the disappointment in Diego’s eyes.

Someone was humming some stupid pop song but there were no ghosts except Ben around him. It took him a moment to realize that the hum was coming out of his own throat as he leaned his forehead against the phone. When had he leaned his forehead against the phone?

»Hello?« There was a voice cracking through the phone. »Hello? Who’s there?«

»Lu?« He muttered as he recognized the voice of his brother. Looking over to his right, he could see Ben nodding encouragingly.

»Klaus? Aren't you supposed to pick up Diego?«

»I fucked up, Luther…« He groaned quietly, slurring his words even worse than before. »I really, really fucked up. Diego is gonna kill me.« The last few words escaped him with a sob.

»What- Where are you? I’m coming, okay? Just tell me where you are and I come over and help you.« He could tell that Luther wanted to ask what he had done or maybe even if he was high again. He didn't, though and Klaus had never been more thankful for his big brother than at that moment.

»I’m … I dunno … that stupid country road we would always drive on on the way to the dentist … You know, the one with that stupid diner at the side.« He still remembered passing the diner shortly after he had pulled into the road.  That was good, right? That he still remembered it. It was now almost two miles behind him and there was no way he would walk back there. »The waitresses are still wearing roller blades … I want rollerblades too. You think Dad’s gonna buy me rollerblades for Christmas?«

But why would his father buy him something he wanted? He never bought them anything they wanted and Klaus hadn't been able to conjure up his beloved Number Five either. Reginald had no inkling to give his wayward son what he wanted. Not more than any other year.  

»Okay.« Luther said after a moment of hesitation. »Okay, Klaus, I’m coming over and pick you up, okay? Just stay where you are, right?«

»I fucked up so badly, Lu … Diego will be so mad at me.«

»It's okay. We’ll sort it out when I get there, right?«

»I think I’m bleeding.« He answered quietly. »I need to lie down now.«

※※※※※※※

 _I think I’m bleeding_. Those were the words echoing over and over and over again in Luther’s head as he was rushing down the busy streets of the city in his minivan everyone kept making fun of him for owning until he found the right intersection to leave the hustle and bustle of the city and turn into the country road leading into the outskirts. As Klaus had called him and he had first realized how badly his brother was slurring his words, Luther had been certain that his brother had given into temptation and gotten high despite his responsibility for picking up Diego.

He had cursed himself for not sticking with Klaus the entire day and trusting his brother to actually go through with this task and his sobriety. He had soon realized, though, that there was something else going on. Not to mention that his stomach had turned over the moment Klaus asked if their father would buy him roller skates for Christmas. He had always wanted a pair ever since he had first seen them in a commercial and every year since then, Christmas had been terribly disappointing for Klaus. For all of them, of course, but Klaus, for some strange reason had never quite lost hope. The last time he had asked for a pair for Christmas was when they had just turned fourteen. It had been the year Five had disappeared.

The thought of Klaus out there all alone and hurt was holding his heart in an ice cold grip. He remembered the day Ben died - as if the situation at hand wouldn't already be bad enough. But bad memories came as they tended to come in moments one could use them the least.

He remembered how Ben had protected him during that god-awful mission. He hadn't seen that the last of their enemies had suddenly pulled a gun on them. Awareness of the bullet had come too late. And then Ben had been there, unleashing the most vile beast inside of him until his warcry had suddenly turned into a pained scream. He remembered the blood all around him and the creature that had vacated his body so violently, dead on the ground, unable to survive on its own. And Ben … he remembered how pale he had looked lying on the ground. He remembered his vacant eyes staring at the ceiling.

As he saw the burned-out wreck of Diego’s old car, his heart stopped for a second. The car had crashed against a tree at the side of the road and due to its age and the bad condition the car had been in, had probably exploded and burned up quite quickly. He drove past the wreck and pulled over before stepping quickly out of his own car. What if Klaus had gotten hurt in the explosion?

The rain was so heavy now that he could hardly see anything as he was blinking against the water. Still, he pulled out his phone and called 911 before making another move. Why had Klaus not called the police or an ambulance? Why had he called him instead? Maybe those were thoughts for later, Luther decided after he had described his location to the dispatcher on the other side. It was only then that he saw the slumped figure resting against the pole with the payphone on the side of the road. »We need an ambulance too.« Luther quickly returned to the dispatcher. »The driver seems to be injured.«

After he ended the call, Luther hurried over to the pole. From afar, he was unable to tell if Klaus was awake or not. The rain had soaked his clothes completely and his curls hung wet into his eyes but there was still blood on his face. His nose appeared to be broken as Luther crouched down on the wet ground before him. His lips were bloody and split at the right corner of his mouth. He had a few cuts all over his cheeks and his head seemed to be injured quite badly.

»Klaus!« Luther called out as he carefully extended his hand to his face to gently slap his cheek. »Klaus, wake up!«

»Shut it, Benedict…«

»Klaus!« He tried again slapping his face harder before Klaus finally opened his eyes to blink slowly up at him, his eyelids drooping heavily. A moment later, there was a lazy little crooked smile appearing on Klaus’ face.

»Oh … Hey Luther…« He slurred and fought to keep his eyes open. »I did something bad, Lu. I destroyed Diego’s car. He will be so mad.«

»No … Don't worry.« Luther mumbled quietly. »It's not important now.«

»Yes, yes it's important.« Klaus moaned and was fighting to keep his eyes open. He didn't seem to be able to focus his eyes on Luther, though. »Diego trusted me and I let him down so much.«

»It doesn't matter.« Luther argued back. »The only thing that matters is that you are alive, okay? And there is an ambulance coming and I will not leave your side until I know you are gonna be fine. And then I will pick up Diego. Let me handle it. I’m Number One, right?«

»Oh, Captain, my Captain…« Luther’s heart dropped a little as Klaus’ head slumped forward and against his shoulder next. He could already hear the sirens of the ambulance rushing down the country road as he carefully closed his arms around his brother. For once, he didn't even care that the rain was already soaking him through and through.

※※※※※※※

When he came to it the next time and managed to force his eyes open, he immediately realized that he was no longer alone. He could feel the presence of another person next to him. Not Ben. No. Ben was sitting on the end of his bed staring at him like a cat waiting for its owner to wake up and feed them in the morning. A lazy smile crept up on his dead brother’s face as he noticed how Klaus slowly woke up.

For some reason, Klaus almost expected Luther to sit beside him but as he turned his head just barely to look at the person watching over him, he found Diego sitting in the uncomfortable plastic chair. His cheeks were swollen from the operation and he looked like a pissed-off hamster as he stared out of the window on the other side of the room.

He hadn't even yet noticed that Klaus had woken up. »I’m sorry.« He mumbled quietly and thus broke the spell. His head was buzzing and humming with electricity and he still felt a little nauseous as he reached out a careful hand to his brother under Ben’s encouraging smile. Diego, immediately at the sound of his words, looked down on him in surprise.

»Hey…« He said but even that sounded a bit muffled. He didn't look too happy to be here. Of course not. Klaus had just crashed his car and destroyed it completely, after all! Diego had loved this car! he had told him stories about that car while teaching Klaus how to drive it! He had told him how he had bought the car from a little old lady down the street from the gym with his first paycheck ten years ago! Diego, however, immediately took his hand and clasped it with both of his own.

Diego’s hand were always so much warmer than his own.

»I’m sorry, Diego.« He muttered again. Under different circumstances, he would have made fun of Diego for the way he looked right now. Oh, what a missed opportunity. »I’m sorry … I crashed your car … I really messed up this time, Diego … I’m so sorry.«

»It's okay.« Diego replied calmly and took one of his hands away just to brush his fingers over Klaus’ cheek. He hadn't even realized that he had started crying. Everything seemed so out of focus and weird. He hardly felt anything. That thought made panic settle into his stomach. What if they had given him something that would make him fall straight back into his addiction? He couldn't do this again. »It doesn't matter. You’re still alive that is all that matters. I can always buy a new car … It was about time anyway.«

»I’m so sorry for letting you down … You look like a hamster … I meant to make fun of you the entire day.«

Diego actually chuckled at this and patted his cheek carefully as if he thought Klaus was made of glass or something. »It's okay … You can make fun of me when we are back home. You hit your head pretty bad there. You should rest some more.«

He didn't want to sleep. He wanted to go home. Yet, as if Diego had secretly borrowed Allison’s power and put a spell on him, Klaus was knocked out right away again but this time as he fell unconscious, it was at the very least with the good feeling that his brother was watching over him and, more importantly, that Diego would not rip his head off anytime soon.


End file.
